Hey, Everyone!

I think you'll forgive me for not having this up yesterday, it turned out to be WAAAYY longer than I had intended, and when I thought I was haflway done, I wasn't even close.

So, here you are, chapter 39 of The House of Hades by Kimmie G914

All right go to Rick Riordan

Enjoy!

Chapter 39

Leo

Leo wasn't having that hard of a time believing Hazel and Jason's story.

"She said to meet her in the lobby," Hazel insisted. "We only have 5 minutes, let's just go before she leaves us and we never see him again!"

"Okay, okay, we're coming, Geez," Piper sighed. "We understood the urgency the first time."

And they took off running down the hall, down the stairs, and Leo lagged behind, thinking about how they were going to get in and get out, following Jason and Hazel who were blindly following the lead of a fourteen-year-old girl that was very suspicious, well, to Leo.

He wasn't sure how comfortable he felt with this, but if Hazel was going to do it, and Frank was going to do it, and Piper and Jason were going to do it, then Leo was going to do it, too.

They met at the lobby, at the front desk, and Jason and Hazel talked to someone Leo couldn't see.

Piper came over to him. "Hey, Fire Boy."

"What's up, Beauty Queen?"

"You trust this girl?"

"I trust my friends."

"Me too. I was asking if you trusted this girl they can see and we can't."

"Look, Piper, if they trust the girl, they trust her, and I'll follow them. And since they do, I will," Leo gave her a determined look. "I'm not backing out of this. No matter what. I'm ready to fight."

"Does everyone have their weapons with you?" Jason suddenly asked them. "I'm pretty sure we'll need them."

"What does she say?"

"That we're so close to finding him, and what she's looking for."

"Okay, I guess we're ready, then," Hazel said. "She's not waiting anymore."

Leo debated whether or not to mention that he was really nervous, or that he thought they should turn back now and find their own way down, but Hazel and Jason and started moving, and so the rest of the group followed.

Jason and Hazel suddenly stopped, knelt down, and each grabbed a tile in front of them.

Hazel pulled hers off first, and started down on the wooden floor boards below that.

Once they had pulled the floor apart, Jason stood up and said, "She said this is the entrance. And we have to jump. And it's a long fall."

"Whenever you guys are ready," Hazel said, and then she jumped straight down.

Leo was shocked and horrified.

"Hazel!" Frank yelled in shock, and jumped down after her.

Leo wasn't waiting anymore, either; he jumped straight down into the dark abyss after them.

Leo looked up and watched the light disappear like the entrance to a long tunnel and wondered if that was how Percy and Annabeth had felt as they were falling into Tartarus.

The thought of them made Leo's heart ache and his stomach twist into knots.

He was doing this for them as much as he was doing this for Hazel and the rest of the world.

It was his fault; him and his stupid fortune cookie.

"You saved two lives and lost two lives, Leo," he told himself solemnly as he shot down after the girl he loved…and Frank.

There was a sort of skidding noise a few feet below him, and suddenly he landed on the top of what seemed to be a kind of slope, because he slid against it until he slid to a stop at the bottom.

It was dark down in the underground they were standing in.

The earth above them was high enough to let Leo stand without hunching over.

Unfortunately, Frank wasn't so lucky.

"She said that the tunnel gets bigger, and that light will show up soon," Hazel said from a distance in front of Leo and Frank's big figure in front of him.

They moved along as Leo heard the skidding and shuffling noises of his friends arriving behind him.

The cave ceiling must have gotten taller, because after a short while, Frank was standing normally in front of him.

There was a sudden bright light that flooded the cave, making Leo squint, even though he had Frank covering most of it in front of him.

They entered a large, circular area with tunnels entrances spaced around them.

They spread out, and Leo checked to make sure all his friends were here.

And then he looked to the center of the space, and he finally saw the girl.

"This is as far as I take you," she said, her voice echoing.

"What?!" Hazel asked, outraged. "Why?"

"Because this is as far as you'll go," she said.

The realization struck Leo across the face harder than a slap would.

"I found what I was looking for," she continued.

"What?" Leo asked.

"My honor," she hissed, and she looked up at Leo.

Leo wanted to vomit as soon as he saw her face.

She was missing her eyes, and there was dried blood crusted around the edges of the eye sockets.

Her nose was twisted to the left, and her mouth looked as if both her lips had been torn off.

A scorpion scurried from one eye socket to the other.

Leo shivered.

"She took this from me," she whispered. "I've been down here for years. I'm just about as old as you are. I just don't look like it. Because I'm dead."

Leo looked at his friends around the room. Piper was slowly, so slowly, pulling her knife out.

Leo looked at Jason.

He was pulling his sword out.

"She promised that if I brought you here, she'd give me my eyes back," she continued. "Make me pretty again."

"Gaea," Frank said.

She nodded.

"So now you're all gonna die," she sounded hysterical, actually. "You five, Nico, and the two in Tartarus."

"But that's where you're wrong," Jason said, stepping forward. "You all are going to die, but you're not bringing the rest of us down with you."

And there was suddenly an arrow wedged in her chest.

Leo looked over at Frank, who still had his hands the position he took when he shot.

He lowered his bow, took a shaky breath, and sighed.

She cackled. "I'm already dead. You can't kill me again."

"You obviously don't know the rules around here," Hazel said. "No matter how dead you are, as long as you have some sort of form, you can dissipate when the right kind of weapons are used against you. And lucky for us, we know what those weapons are. And unfortunately for you, Frank's arrow was one of those weapons."

By the time Hazel had finished her demeaning speech, the girl was already a pile of sand, and Jason used the wind and blew it away.

"Sharp shooting, Frank," Leo said.

"Come on, you guys, we've got tons of tunnels to check and not very much time," Hazel encouraged.

"Hey, the girl-"

"Ghost," Frank corrected Leo.

"Sorry, the ghost, said that Gaea had sent her, right?"

"Yeah, so?" Piper asked.

"Well, why would she want to collect us down here?"

"I don't know," Jason asked. "Why do you think?"

"Because maybe the Doors of Death are down here, too."

"Well, then maybe this wasn't so much of a detour after all," Jason said. "We need to split up."

"Gods, we sound like the Scooby Doo gang," Hazel shook her head. "I'll go with Frank."

"And I'll go with Piper and Leo," Jason confirmed. "Good luck, you guys."

"Good luck."

And Leo watched as Hazel and Frank ran off down one of the tunnels.

Leo wondered if he would ever see her again.

"Okay, you guys," Jason said. "Let's go find those Doors. Let Hazel find her brother."

"Where do you suggest we look?" Piper asked.

"Let's just do what they did," Jason said. "Run into a random tunnel and see where it takes us."

"Okay," Piper sighed.

Leo smiled. "One team again."

Jason smiled. "One team."

Leo picked the tunnel right across from the one they had entered in, and they took off running.

"We like running, don't we guys?" Leo asked.

Jason laughed. "I like flying a little better, honestly, but this is fine with me."

The tunnel system was like a labyrinth. There were so many twists and turns and branching off. Jason wondered if they'd just get lost down here.

They simply acted on impulse and took which ever one they were running toward when they arrived at a part where the tunnel branched into two or more.

They had come to another stop, and Jason sighed. "Which one do we choose?"

"Well," Piper peeked into one of them. "I see a light shining through on that side."

Leo looked over into it, too. "Piper, that's fire."

"What?" she looked at him. "Really?" she took a step closer and looked at it. "Oh." She took a step back. "Yeah, it is. How did they get white fire?"

"No idea," Leo said. "I guess we take the other one."

"The other one is a dead end. A huge set of closed doors." Jason sighed.

"Well, that's our only option," Piper said, putting her hands on her hips. "We have to get them open."

"And what do you suggest?" Leo asked as they walked down toward the door and examined them. "Knocking? Seeing who's home?"

Piper shot him a look. "You're the Hephaestus kid. Tell us what it's made of."

Leo rolled his eyes. He was impressed by the height of the doors. They were easily twice the height of the three of them stacked on each other's shoulders.

They seemed to be made of Celestial Bronze, which didn't make any sense to Leo.

There were two huge knockers, but they seemed to be for decoration.

"I think we should try pushing it," Leo said as he turned back to them.

"Okay," Jason replied.

They walked up to one of the doors and pushed. It slid across the ground easily and the two boys walked it open.

"Well, that was easier than I expected," Piper admitted.

She walked in as the guys pulled away from the door and back into the hallway.

Leo was wiping his hands off on his pants when he suddenly heard a gagging sound and he heard Jason yell, "Piper!"

He snapped his head up and saw Piper, on the ground, kneeling, with her eyes closed, gagging.

Jason ran in to help her and suddenly turned his head into the hallway and vomited.

"Gods, it smells awful in there!" Jason gagged as Leo sidestepped the projectile Jason spewed across the floor. "Kind of like rotting death."

"Well, let's get this over with, then," Leo sighed.

"Nope, sorry," Piper said as she finally dragged herself out of the room. "I'm gonna take the fire tunnel."

"No, you're not," Jason replied. "We have to get through it, though. This is definitely the way."

"How can you be sure?" Leo asked.

"Because it doesn't kill us."

"Alright, fine," Piper sighed. "Let's do this."

Leo walked in first this time.

The smell hit him like a wave. Jason had described it pretty well. Rotting death was the first thing that came to mind.

But Leo wasn't done yet. He had friends to save. It was his fault Percy and Annabeth were down there, and he was gonna get them out.

Before he knew it, he had passed the wall of stench and reached a huge room.

The first thing Leo noticed was all the dead flowers. And then he noticed that his friends had came in after him.

"Okay, someone definitely doesn't know how to garden," Piper commented.

"The Demeter kids would have a fit," Jason breathed. "I'd hate to show them this."

Leo walked a little farther into the room.

He stared at all the dead flowers in vases, on shelves, sitting with petals gray, stems shriveled, and reeking.

"I think I figured out where the smell is coming from," Leo sighed.

Piper came up beside him.

Jason came up on his other side.

The wall across from them was painted and orange-gold color.

It reminded Leo of something, something that was tugged at the back of his mind, begging to resurface.

And then, out of habit, he looked up.

His eyes grew wide and he took a step back.

"Leo?" Jason asked. "What is it?"

Leo pointed up.

Hanging down from the ceiling, were tons and tons of metal cages. They just hung there. They didn't swing, they just hung.

And Leo could tell that there were people in them.

A hand sticking out from between some cage bars, blood dripping off the side, all those sick things.

And then Leo saw it.

A calf, half of it swinging as if connected to nothing as the bone for the rest of the leg jutted out midway.

And the leg was barely covered by ripped black pants.

Leo looked at Jason. "Fly up and see who's in there."

Jason nodded and he flew to the cage Leo pointed at.

"Leo, what are you so worried about?" Piper asked.

Jason flew back down, and by the look on his face, Leo knew he was correct.

But Leo made him say it anyway.

"Yeah," Jason sighed. "That's Nico in there."

Thanks for Reading!